(Image courtesy of BGR)
After Apple announced that 14.1 million more iPhones entered the world in their last fiscal quarter of 2010, it’s only natural for the speculation to turn back to the mythical Verizon iPhone -- which may actually exist and getting put through field tests right now.
BGR (Boy Genius Report) is reporting that an iPhone model 3,2 has just hit the “AP” testing stage. According to “one of their solid Apple sources,” this may be the fabled Verizon CDMA iPhone, which has reached the final stage of testing prior to retail release -- that means final hardware and near-final software.
But the plot thickens: This mystery iPhone 3,2 also contains a SIM card slot, which could mean any number of things. The most obvious choice is that the next iPhone model will pack both CDMA and GSM/HSPA radios, giving it the magical capabilities of supporting almost every carrier on the planet -- including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and others worldwide.
iPhone 3,2 is actually not the iPhone 5, which isn’t expected until June, 2011, but rather a mid-cycle refresh, presumably with an updated antenna design to once and for all put to rest the “Antennagate” scandal. Of course, that also means that potential Verizon customers may very well wind up with a slightly better iPhone 4 than the one AT&T customers have -- but judging from Apple’s customer satisfaction awards from the likes of J.D. Power & Associates, we don’t see that being a huge issue.
Another possibility is that this CDMA-equipped iPhone 3,2 is intended strictly for the likes of Verizon (or maybe Sprint), and the SIM card slot is to allow global roaming in GSM markets, similar to what a number of Blackberry models allow. Assuming the device is unlocked, current iPhone 4 users could probably jump ship from AT&T to Verizon with ease -- except for those hefty early termination fees.
So what about next year’s iPhone 5? BGR’s source reveals that just such a device has already hit the “EVT” stage of development -- the engineering verification test phase, which precedes the next “DVT” stage, whatever that may be. Sounds like it’s coming along, at any rate…
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